The Impacts of WUCIOA on Community Associations

New Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA) provisions take effect Jan. 1, 2026

BY TONY RAFEL AND TIM FETH

In 2018, the Washington Legislature took a major step toward standardizing the law that applies to condominium associations, homeowners’ associations, and other common interest communities. The Washington Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act (WUCIOA) became effective on July 1, 2018, and applied in full to all common interest communities created on or after that date, but not to communities formed under prior laws. Beginning Jan. 1, 2026, important provisions of WUCIOA become applicable to all community associations. And in 2028, the journey toward standardization will be complete when WUCIOA becomes applicable to all communities, regardless of when they were formed or under what laws. These changes will surely cause significant upheaval in communities that do not get prepared in advance.

The current statutory landscape for community associations is, to put it lightly, complex. Condominiums can take the form of downtown high-rises, apartment-style mid-rises, or townhouses. But regardless of the type of physical structure, the owners of condominium units co-own the community’s common elements (which can include roofs, exterior walls, lobbies, shared amenities, etc.), which are administered by the condominium owners’ association. Condominiums created before July 1, 1990, are governed by the Horizontal Property Regimes Act (Chapter 64.32 RCW, the “Old Act”), while those created between July 1, 1990, and June 30, 2018, are governed by the Washington Condominium Act (Chapter 64.34 RCW, the “Condo Act”).

Homeowners’ associations are typically (but not always) made up of single-family homes subject to shared covenants in which a nonprofit association owns and operates the common areas (which can include private roads, parks, event centers, and other amenities). HOAs created before July 1, 2018, are governed by the Homeowners’ Associations Act (Ch. 64.38 RCW, the “HOA Act”).

Condominiums, HOAs, and other “common interest communities” created on or after July 1, 2018, are all governed by WUCIOA, Chapter 64.90 RCW. In 2024, the Legislature adopted, and the governor signed Senate Bill 5796, nicknamed “WUCIOA For All.” SB 5796 repeals the Old Act, the Condo Act, and the HOA Act effective Jan. 1, 2028, and makes WUCIOA applicable to all common interest communities thereafter. WUCIOA For All effectively converts all older communities into WUCIOA communities. Since the governing documents of older communities are based on prior laws that differ significantly from WUCIOA, those communities will need to amend their documents to come into compliance with WUCIOA.

Currently, portions of both the Condo Act and WUCIOA are retroactively applicable to communities governed by the earlier statutes. So, a condominium created in 1985 is governed primarily by the Old Act, but also by portions of both the Condo Act and WUCIOA. And HOAs created before WUCIOA are governed by the HOA Act but also by portions of WUCIOA.

Community associations are made up of owner-members who live in the community or rent their units and are managed by volunteer boards of directors elected from the membership after the developer control period ends. Sorting through different and overlapping statutes poses a major challenge for these owners and directors trying to address governance of the community and specific issues as they arise.

One of the major goals of WUCIOA was to bring all common interest communities under a single statutory scheme. For communities formed on or after July 1, 2018, it accomplishes that. But until 2028, older communities formed under prior laws are still subject to a patchwork of the laws under which they were formed and an overlay of some WUCIOA provisions.

The changes imposed by WUCIOA will have wide-ranging impacts. For example, with respect to insurance, Old Act condominiums used to be able (so long as permitted by the condominium declaration) to maintain only stripped-down, “walls-out” property insurance. That will no longer be permitted under WUCIOA, which requires condominium associations to maintain property insurance covering the common elements and all the units. In addition, all types of communities will be required to obtain fidelity insurance, which was previously required only if required by the governing documents.

For older condominiums, costs of repair within an association’s master property insurance deductible were often assessed under the condominium declaration to the “source” unit—that is, the unit served by the component that failed and caused the damage—regardless of whether the damage was to the unit, another unit, or the common elements. Under WUCIOA, a unit may only be assessed amounts within the master deductible for damage to that unit.

WUCIOA also modifies the costs that may be assessed to individual owners in other ways and requires that prior to assessing an owner for costs arising out of the owner’s negligence, gross negligence, or misconduct, the association must provide the owner with notice and an opportunity to be heard.

WUCIOA also imposes a novel annual account reconciliation requirement “[t]o assure that the unit owners are correctly assessed for the actual expenses of the association,” unless the board determines that reconciliation will not result in a material savings to any owner.

And WUCIOA will change the rules governing wide-ranging topics including quorums, lien priority, termination of the association, amendment of governing documents, and many other aspects of community association operations.

One of the most fundamental changes WUCIOA imposes involves how associations conduct meetings and transact business. Of the legacy statutes, only the HOA Act requires meetings of the association’s board of directors to be “open,” that is, open to observation by the owners. There is no open meeting requirement under the Condo Act or Old Act. While an individual condominium association’s governing documents may require meetings to be open, that is not the default rule. WUCIOA requires all board meetings to be open to the owners, while allowing the board to meet in executive session for limited purposes.

Further, for all board meetings, WUCIOA requires either: (1) 14 days’ formal notice (i.e., notice by mail or personal delivery, unless the owner has agreed in writing to notice by electronic means) to all owners of every board meeting; or (2) that meetings be held pursuant to a schedule provided in advance to the owners. WUCIOA also requires that owners be given an opportunity not just to attend but to participate in board meetings by commenting on any matter affecting the community. Most dramatically, the WUCIOA open meeting provision prohibits most board action between meetings. Currently, it is common—and perfectly acceptable under the Condo Act, Old Act, HOA Act, and Nonprofit Corporation Act—for boards to take action by unanimous written consent between meetings. Under WUCIOA, the only action boards may take between meetings are “ministerial” actions and actions previously authorized at an open meeting. Another change is that WUCIOA’s open meeting requirements apply not only to board meetings, but to committee meetings as well.

WUCIOA is also more exacting regarding reserve accounts. One of the provisions of WUCIOA that was retroactive from the start, was the requirement that associations conduct reserve studies—a process by which an independent professional evaluates the remaining useful life of physical components which the association is responsible to maintain, repair, and replace, and provides guidance on how the association should be saving money to meet those repair and replacement obligations as they arise. There is no requirement under WUCIOA or older statutes that associations follow the advice of the reserve study professional or fund reserves to any minimum degree. However, WUCIOA communities have the additional requirement to open and maintain a reserve account. The required reserve accounts will be subject to detailed regulations, including where the funds may be held and invested.

The fact that all communities will have to comply with WUCIOA by Jan. 1, 2028, was already a daunting scenario for many boards, managers, and community association attorneys. But the Legislature was not done there.

In 2025, the Legislature adopted, and the governor signed SB 5129, which makes portions of WUCIOA applicable to all communities on Jan. 1, 2026. The result will be a “phase-in” or “ramp-up” to WUCIOA For All. The most significant part of SB 5129’s phase-in involves WUCIOA’s meetings requirements. Effective January 1, 2026, all common interest communities must comply with the meeting provisions described above and provide a new mandatory minimum 15-minute owner-comment period at the beginning of every board meeting. In addition, SB 5129 imposes a new requirement that any written materials provided to board members in advance of meetings be made available to owners as well. Communities currently operating under the Old Act, Condo Act, and HOA Act will have to fundamentally change the way they are conducting day-to-day business by Jan. 1, 2026, to comply with this new law.

WUCIOA For All solves the problem of having disparate laws with different requirements applying to similar communities, but the benefit of standardization comes at a cost. If community associations created under the earlier Acts do not act to amend their governing documents before 2028, their documents and practices, however compliant with the legacy laws preceding WUCIOA, will immediately become noncompliant. Under SB 5129, associations also have to modify their meeting practices starting Jan. 1, 2026, or find themselves out of compliance with WUCIOA. For associations that do not adapt to the changes, routine board actions such as holding meetings, adopting budgets, levying assessments, approving projects, and taking enforcement action against homeowner violations may be subject to challenge and invalidation.

When the new laws become effective, there will be no grace period for associations created under prior laws to achieve compliance. They will be required to comply with the new laws on “Day One,” even though their governing documents specify different requirements. This “disconnect” will create chaos for associations that have not planned for the transition. In most cases, planning should consist of amending and restating the governing documents to conform to WUCIOA, training the board and outside manager on the changes, and communicating with the community. In most cases, amending the governing documents requires the vote or approval of 67 percent of the total voting power and the execution and recording of an amendment with the county.

Where low voter turnout is a concern—or to take advantage of some of the benefits of WUCIOA before it becomes universally applicable—associations can utilize the statutorily authorized “opt in” procedure, through which an association can voluntary make WUCIOA applicable in full in advance of the automatic changeover. That process also involves obtaining a vote of the owners, but the threshold for opting in is lower than for standard amendments. Opting in also gives a board of directors the opportunity to utilize authority in WUCIOA to amend portions of governing documents that represent a direct conflict with the statute, without obtaining a further vote of the owners, but does not allow for board amendments to provisions not in “direct” conflict.

One benefit of amending is that the board of directors, owners, and association managers will necessarily engage with the governing documents, identify outdated provisions, and become familiar with the new procedures and standards required under WUCIOA For All. Another key benefit is that future owners and board members can rely on the amended and restated governing documents instead of having to determine, each time a new issue arises, whether and to what extent the governing documents have been superseded, and what requirements now apply. In short, associations and attorneys that represent associations will benefit greatly by being proactive in preparing for WUCIOA. Associations that fail to get ahead of the changes risk disruption, confusion, conflict, and unnecessary costs. Timely preparation is key to a smooth transition.